Asylum Firm Charges £1Bn

Company-paid astonishing sum to look after refugees were warned of rising tensions after moving hundreds from apartments to hotels

- Carlos Alba

Tension has been simmering in Glasgow for weeks between asylum seekers and the firm the Government has paid £1billion to look after them.

Badreddin Abdalla Adam’s stabbing spree at the city’s Park Inn Hotel followed a series of disputes after Mears moved more than 350 asylum seekers from serv iced accommodation apartments into hotels in April.

The English company agreed on a 10-year contract with the Home Office in January 2019 but in Glasgow, it is accused of housing vulnerable women – including a mum of a two-year-old – in another hotel alongside dozens of men, sources told the Record.

Sources also claimed some women were forced to borrow sanitary products from hotel staff after having their £35-a-week living allowance withdrawn.

Up to 100 asylum seekers are said to have refused food after being given the same meals for several weeks. Some complained about sharing showers, despite being told they wouldn’t have to.

Following the attack, asylum seekers have been moved to the nearby Hallmark hotel on Washington Street.

Mears had assured council and NHS officials that only new arrivals would be housed in hotels as a pandemic measure.

At meetings attended by NHS and Home Office officials, the firm was accused of housing seven vulnerable women in the same hotel as 80 male asylum seekers for more than three weeks.

An NHS insider, who is involved with asylum seekers and has knowledge of the firm, said: “I asked the Home Office directly why, during a public health crisis, they endangered hundreds of people by moving them from serviced apartments into hotels and hostels. I got no answer.